The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 04, 2018
Filed:
Sep. 09, 2016
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Erlanger, KY (US);
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA (US);
Feng Zhou, South Lyon, MI (US);
Ercan M. Dede, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Mehdi Asheghi, Palo Alto, CA (US);
James W. Palko, Redwood City, CA (US);
Kenneth E. Goodson, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Erlanger, KY (US);
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA (US);
Abstract
Embodiments of an evaporator chamber heat flux rectifier and thermal switch are provided. Some embodiments include an evaporator layer with a first thermally conductive surface, a wicking structure for facilitating evaporation of a fluid in the vapor chamber heat flux rectifier, and a condenser layer that includes a second thermally conductive surface. Some embodiments include a middle layer, where when heat is applied to the first thermally conductive surface, the vapor chamber heat flux rectifier operates as a thermal conductor. Some embodiments that operate as a thermal switch include a non-condensable gas reservoir that is coupled to the condenser layer. The non-condensable gas reservoir may store a non-condensable gas when a threshold heat flux is applied to the evaporator layer. The non-condensable gas provides thermal insulation between the evaporator layer and the condenser layer when the threshold heat flux is not applied to the evaporator layer.